Chapters 29-31 Summary
The two con men are challenged by the real Wilks brothers. A lawyer has both sets of people sign a piece of paper to compare the signatures, and it is proved that the con men are frauds. Then the con men say that it is a false accusation, so real Harvey tries to prove that he is the true Harvey by telling the undertaker of a tattoo on his brother's chest. Both the real and the fake Harvey describe the tattoo, but there is actually no tattoo on the brother. To go check, the mob of people goes to look at the body, but they are surprised to find out that there is $6,000 in the coffin. In all of the commotion, Huck escapes to the raft. While going to the raft Huck runs into the dauphin. The dauphin tries to strangle Huck because he is so angry. The con men tell Huck about how they escaped from the mob of people. The duke and the dauphin both think that the other person hid the money in the coffin. Huck, Jim, and the two con men get back on the raft. Huck decides to ditch the con men in a small town, but when he goes out to the raft he finds out that Jim was caught. Huck realizes that one of the con men was the person who sold Jim to another man for forty dollars. Huck has a moral dilemma about what to do about Jim, but he decides he will risk it and go to steal Jim back. Huck tricks the con man into telling him where Jim is and then goes off to find Jim.
Reflections
In these chapters I was amazed at how ridiculous it was that the con men managed to stay in disguise as long as they did. It shows how gullible people can be, that they wouldn't believe from their phony accents that they weren't the real Wilks brothers. I also was upset that Huck had such and internal struggle about whether or not to find Jim. It upsets me that children were raised to think that it is bad to help a person.